London: Ash Wednesday climate vigil and peace witness

Image: Fides

A Lent Vigil for Climate Justice will be launched with an Ash Wednesday Church service at 1pm on Wednesday 14 February, at St Johns Church, Waterloo. The theme for prayers and worship will be lament, longing, and love. After this service, people will make their own way to outside the Westminster Parliament, where the Vigil starts at 2:30pm.

Then, from Ash Wednesday a 10-day round-the-clock climate vigil, 'No Faith in Fossil Fuels', has been organised by Christian Climate Action, Green Christian, CAFOD, Christian Aid, Tearfund, A Rocha, and the Salvation Army.

Locating the vigil at Westminster aims to lobby the UK Government to undertake bolder climate initiatives. Specifics include making the UK's biggest polluters pay for climate action; banning new UK-based fossil fuel projects; and delivering and building on the UK's international climate finance pledges and paying into the UN's Loss and Damage Fund.

Also, on Ash Wednesday, Pax Christi London members are planning a liturgy at the nearby Ministry of Defence. Meeting at 3.30pm, there will be a time of prayer/readings/symbolic actions that focus on war and nuclear weapons. The 'Witness and Prayer Against War' is supported by Christian CND, Columbans in Britain, London Catholic Worker and Westminster Justice and Peace.

That evening there will also be a national on-line service organised by Pax Christi England and Wales.

LINKS

Lent Vigil for Climate Justice: https://christianclimateaction.org/2023/12/08/join-us-for-the-no-faith-in-fossil-fuels-lent-vigil-for-climate-justice-14-24-february-2024/

Pax Christi: https://paxchristi.org.uk/